User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Trail selection by Odocoileus hemionus in an open field at varying snow depths
| Plot | Plot Mean Snow Depth | Individuals Present in Plot | Aggregate Distance Travelled on Established Trail
|
Aggregate Distance Travelled on Primary Trail
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Aggregate Distance Travelled on Secondary Trail
|
Percent Distance Travelled on Established Trail
|
Percent Distance Travelled on Primary Trail
|
Percent Distance Travelled on Secondary Trail |
| 1 | 37.90cm | 8 | N/A | 189m | 51m | N/A | 78.75% | 21.25% |
| 2 | 31.65cm | 10 | N/A | 185m | 115m | N/A | 61.67% | 38.3% |
| 3 | 31.60cm | 4 | N/A | 110m | 10m | N/A | 91.67% | 8.3% |
| 4 | 30.70cm | 7 | N/A | 165m | 45m | N/A | 78.57% | 21.43% |
| 5 | 37.8cm | 12 | N/A | 306m | 86m | N/A | 78.06% | 21.94% |
| 1 | 48.52cm | 10 | 267m | 0m | 33m | 89.0% | 0% | 11.0% |
| 2 | 38.27cm | 9 | 222m | 40m | 8m | 82.22% | 14.81% | 2.96% |
| 3 | 38.30cm | 2 | 60m | 0m | 0m | 100% | 0% | 0% |
| 4 | 37.50cm | 6 | 153m | 5m | 12m | 90.0% | 2.94% | 7.06% |
| 5 | 48.28cm | 12 | N/A | 326m | 49m | N/A | 86.93% | 13.07% |
| 1 | 65.15cm | 11 | 300m | 30m | 0m | 90.91% | 9.09% | 0% |
| 2 | 55.68cm | 8 | 160m | 80m | 0m | 66.67% | 33.33% | 0% |
| 3 | 55.68cm | 4 | 12m | 0m | 0m | 100% | 0% | 0% |
| 4 | 53.95cm | 5 | 87m | 33m | 0m | 72.50% | 27.50% | 0% |
| 5 | 64.98cm | 9 | N/A | 219m | 36m | N/A | 85.88% | 14.12% |
| 1 | 73.10cm | 11 | 290m | 40m | 0m | 87.88% | 12.12% | 0% |
| 2 | 63.38cm | 11 | 226m | 80m | 24m | 68.48% | 24.24% | 7.27% |
| 3 | 63.40cm | 3 | 82m | 0m | 8m | 91.11% | 8.89% | 0% |
| 4 | 62.08cm | 8 | 96m | 44m | 40m | 53.33% | 24.44% | 22.22% |
| 5 | 73.0cm | 7 | N/A | 122m | 50m | N/A | 70.93% | 29.07% |
I did struggle a bit to organize all of the data seen in the above table. This was primarily due to my field notes. My terminology was inconsistent in my notes, and it took me quite some time to go through all my notes and essentially translate them in to something that I could use to create a table. The table really helped clarify the date, in my opinion. Attempting to explain in text the above data would have been extremely confusing.
The outcome was not exactly what I expected, but it supported my hypothesis. There was more use of primary trails than I anticipated, but established trails were still used the most frequently. In table 2 (not shown) the data shows that in warmer weather, and a less dense, melting snow pack, use of secondary trails ceased. Deer ceasing to use secondary trails at a threshold depth was in my hypothesis, but no data that I collected supported this. A further area of study that the data made me think about would be to explore the effects of snow density and penetration through snowpack on mule deer trail selection.
